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The Mets have several apparent deficiencies this year, among them lack of team speed, infield defense, and lack of a true leadoff hitter. There is one player in the Mets organization who might, someday, be able to help with all three of these problems.

That player is 23-year-old Luis Guillorme, chosen by the Mets in the 10th round of the 2013 June draft. In his five years in the Mets farm system he has played mostly at short and second, and has shown proficiency at both. With Amed Rosario settling in at ss for the Mets, Guillorme likely will be played more at second base this year, presumably at the AAA level in Las Vegas, at least to start.

Guillorme had a fine year at Binghamton in the Eastern League in 2017, putting up a slash line of .283/.376/.331 in 128 games. His SLG is not impressive, but that OBP is. He’s listed as 5’9” and 199 pounds, and that is not the body of a power hitter. He did smack 20 doubles last year, but had only one home run, and in his minor league career he has only 2 homers. He is also hard to strike out, his K rate was one in every 10.15 PA last year, which lead the Eastern League.

He also played in the Arizona Fall League in 2017, with a .289/.333/.356 line, good enough to put him on the All-Star team for the League.

He is fast, he had 18 SB with Savannah in 2015. So, combining speed with good plate discipline and few strikeouts, you get the profile of a valuable leadoff hitter. He also swings from the left side, giving him a slight edge in running down to first. Of course doing all that at the MLB level will be harder, but he seems like he has the tools to get there.

Defense, though is where Guillorme really shines. Scouts have described him as having the fastest hands in the organization. There are a fair amount of video highlights of him making plays, such as a 2017 clip of him grabbing a high bounder then flipping the ball backhandedly to second to nip the runner. He did make the 2018 MLB Pipeline all defensive team at second base.

Speaking of fast hands and video clips, the 2017 ST clip of him casually plucking a bat out of the air as it flew into the dugout has to be mentioned. Since Brandon Nimmo was right in the line of fire of that errant bat, he might well have suffered a nasty injury had not Guillorme used his lightning reflexes on that play.

Guillorme will probably start the year in the minors, and at the very least could be a September call-up. With his defense, if he can just add a bit more power he could become a fixture at second base for the Mets for many years, combining with Rosario to make a great defensive middle infield.

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18 comments on “Luis Guillorme is a player to watch

  • David Groveman

    Guillorme is a strong candidate for a bench role on a winning team but I don’t see him as a starting option on one.

  • Eraff

    There’s not much to discuss until LG adds a Hit Tool. He’s always had a good D rep… that won’t get him a spot on Position Player Shortened rosters. He’s just 23, so there’s a bit of time for him—- but why is there suddenly more excitement for a pushing 700 OPS Guy versus a bunch of other middling AAA’ers???…

    With the emergence of Defensive Shifts, it’s easier to Shift a player player into defensive competence ( or hide a player) than it is to hide a 650 OPS lineup hole

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    • Brian Joura

      When Dee Gordon was 22, he was also in Double-A and he put up a .277/.332/.355 line and split the following year between Triple-A and the majors.

      For the record, Gordon has speed that Guillorme simply does not.

      But when you’re dreaming on guys, you say that if Guillorme can provide better defense than Gordon and similar or better OBP — that combo at 1/20 the cost of Gordon more than makes up for the speed difference.

      No amount of shifting is going to turn a Wilmer Flores-type player into a competent defender.

      • Chris F

        I think the one metric that seems to regularly gets ignored is outs per game. With zero focus on defense, we have see the nets have to play to 32 or more out games, due to errors, failed plays, and overall incompetence. So its easy to say the shift hides a guy like Flores at 2B, but this fails to identify the piles of failed DPs, instinct to move the wrong way, failed throws from the second base bag to to 1b someone that poor on defense, as Brian points out, will not make. Thats a lot of extra outs. And that places a huge load back on both the starters and relievers.

      • John Fox

        Brian,
        Dee Gordon may have been faster at age 22 than Guillorme is, but everything I have says Guillorme does have a lot of speed, even though it may not have transferred to significant base stealing… yet.

      • Eraff

        Well…I agree on your Flores comment.

  • Hunter

    Defense at second with the shift has been lessened in value. And offense definitely rules in today’s baseball. But still, defense up the middle sounds good to an old-timer.

  • Remember1969

    I’d love to see Guillorme win the 2B job out of Spring Training. In his case, we can forget OPS – he is not going to be a power hitter. Put up .280/.340 with few strikeouts and excellent defense, that is all required at this point. Add a Todd Frazier to play third and they have all the power they need and some of the best defense seen in years .. oh yeah and Guillorme is a full year older than Rosario.

    • Mike Walczak

      Who else do we have for 2B ? Why not give the kid a shot. If he gets on base and plays great defense, there should be a place on the team for him. I’d rather have a young second baseman than an over the hill bargain veteran.

    • TJ

      69,
      I am a huge fan of defense up the middle, and love the thought of LG’s plus plus defense, but there is virtually no way he can win the starting 2b job this spring. Those AA numbers produced one of the lowest OPS in the Eastern league, at AA. The same league that Matt Den Dekker raked and won a batting title with a .900+ OPS. Unless he can bunt like Brett Butler, at this stage, it would likely be too much of a burden on the Met line-up. He needs to work on his doubles and bunting game to project to at least a .700 OPS in the bigs.

    • Geoffrey T

      Because right now, he’s nowhere near a 280 hitter at the major league level. He is behind and barely getting around on a lot of the pitches he swings at, as evidenced by how 5 of his 6 hits are all the other way, usually up the line. The one that he managed to pull was a ball that was hung out over the plate. He’s got a future in the majors. But not this year.

  • TexasGusCC

    Speaking of players to watch, check out Lagares: Someone has put on alot of muscle!

    • Chris F

      And this. He looks like a beast.

      • Metsense

        Looks like Yeonis Syndergaard!

      • Eraff

        Wilmer with or without the Drag Line…same speed. He’s a Tug Boat

        • Chris F

          I know, the slo-mo looked little different than real life.

          On the other hand, Ces is dwarfed by all those guys, which surprised me. And of that quartet, Lagares by far looks like the superior athlete.

          I just hope its not doping.

          • Eraff

            It’s never been a question of Athleticism for Lego… and that wasn’t slow Mo on Flo—that was realtime speed…the beginning part was speeded up

            • Chris F

              🙂

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